Lukacs, a cinematographer and filmmaker from Breckenridge, just completed post-production work on Behind the Chutes, a feature-length documentary film about professional rodeo riders. The project grew out of “Long Ride Home,” a five-minute short she made in 1997 that won several national awards, including the prestigious Roy. W. Dean Award, which included a grant that permitted Lukacs to pursue the feature-length film.
“I just got back from
completing the post-production work at Warner Bros. studio
in Los Angeles,” Lukacs says. “We had our first screening in Jack Warner’s old screening room. Now the plan is to let people know it’s finished, let people know it’s available.”
Lukacs had never attended a rodeo before a friend took her to one in Craig, Colorado in 1996. “I immediately fell in love with it visually, as a photographer,” she says. “Then I started hearing the riders’ stories, and before long I wanted to tell the whole story in a film.” She shot 75 hours of film over six years to produce the final 104-minute cut.
Perry was unable to attend the screening and is eager to see the finished film. “It’s taken her quite a few years,” he says. “There’s a lot of dedication in that film.” Perry competed as a rider from 1990 to 1997 — “seven hard years,” he says — and was supportive of Lukacs from the beginning. “It seemed like a positive thing to do,” he says. “A good way to get out our story. Those horses are really tough to ride. I tried to make 100 shows a year. I never made my fortune, but I sure had a lot of fun.”
Behind the Chutes includes a complete music soundtrack by composer Jeffrey Alan Jones and songs by country music star Chris LeDoux, who was a celebrated rodeo rider before turning to music and who won the 1976 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association bareback rider world championship. “Chris has been supportive of the project since we began, in 1997,” Lukacs says. “And the PRCA has been very supportive. At the beginning there was a little bit of, ‘We can’t have a woman here,’ but pretty soon I had chute bosses at Cheyenne kicking cowboys off the cute to let me up there to film."
“I wore way too many hats on this,” she says cheerfully. “My professional experience is in photography and cinematography. Audio is not part of my background. It’s been the most humbling experience of my life. I got real good at asking for things.” She credits a number of crew members for donating their services to the project, and says she “could not have finished the film” without the contributions of Warner Bros. sound department. She is
particularly grateful to Greg Gerlich, an accomplished Hollywood sound editor who was part of the Oscar-winning sound crew on Speed, who
she says “fell in love with the project and wanted to see it get done.” Gerlich served as supervising sound editor for Behind the Chutes.
Lukacs says she is now
concentrating on finding distribution for Behind the Chutes, which represents another
professional first for her. “I’m submitting the film to the Sundance Film Festival, to the Denver and San Francisco
festivals and to PBS. I think Rocky Mountain PBS is already onboard, and of course we’re looking for cable distribution, as well.”
“I’ve been telling this story for six years. It’s not just about the championship riders. It’s about the average cowboys, their wives, their horses, their sincerity, their honesty. One cowboy at the screening said that this is the best he’s ever seen the story told. You’ll have to see the movie to see how the story comes out.” 
In her 25 years in the film business, Ann Lukacs has accumulated camera credits on films ranging from Coal Miner’s Daughter and Groundhog Day to The Laramie Project. Now she’s added a couple of new titles to her resume: producer and director.
Lukacs’ film follows the career of two professional bareback riders, Tad Perry, a former Breckenridge resident now retired in Texas, and Rick Bradley, who still competes. “The film is the story of the cowboys, as told by the cowboys,” she says. “It’s not my interpretation of the story — it’s coming straight from them. My goal was to stay true to their experiences. I wanted to capture their passion, their desire, the way they’re always there for each other.”
©SCIDN 08/07/2003
Breckenridge- Two years ago, Breckenridge filmmaker Ann Lukacs couldn't have told you the difference between a bareback rider and a barrel racer.
Today, she knows the ins and outs of the chutes, steeds and Champions involved in bareback riding competition on the pro-rodeo circuit.
Lukacs' short documentary "Long Ride home" details the lifestyle, camaraderie and passion involved in rodeo bareback riding - a sport that, in her opinion, represents "pure Americana"
"It's a sport that evolved from the ranches, " Lukacs said. "And all these guys have a different reason why they do it."
In her five-minute piece, Lukacs interviews Breckenridge rider Tad Perry and Wyoming cowboy Rick Bradley, both of whom briefly touched on the "why." Yet at the end of the Film, the audience wants more.
We want to see more shots of these cowboys tossed around atop bucking broncos, and to know what drives them to straddle an agitated horse, risk grave injury for very little money and do it all over again the next morning in a different town.
Recently, Lukacs was presented with an opportunity to give us more. Her five-minute piece won the prestigious Roy W. Dean Award for "a unique film project that makes a contribution to society."
The documentary on professional bareback riding has revitalized Lukacs' creativity as well as her passion for fimmaking, she said.
Being in the film industry, Lukacs could identify with the camaraderie of the cowboys on the circuit, their nomadic lifestyle and their passion for a single discipline - many aspects of which translate to the entertainment community, she said.
"But the number one thing that has driven my passion for this film has been the passion of the guys, "Lukacs said.
While the project is "snowballing in excitement," Lukacs says she has to sit down to decide in what direction she wants to proceed.
She will probably spends most of next summer on the pro rodeo circuit, following Perry and Bradley on their quest for the "Golden Buckle," or first-place at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.
Again, "why" is the question Lukacs will be asking all of the riders in her documentary and in the end, she will tell the story of these cowboys and how they live for those eight seconds atop a bucking horse.
